


Risk/Reward

by mediumrawr



Category: Good Wife (TV)
Genre: Drunkenness, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 07:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mediumrawr/pseuds/mediumrawr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>They're both paying more attention to each other than where they are and Alicia, for her part, is more than a little tipsy. Alicia, still growing accustomed to the whole gay thing, tends to overindulge herself at lesbian bars.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Bar, actually - singular.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Alicia's intellectually sure all of Kalinda's gay bars are equally discreet, but she doesn't much see the virtue in risking trying any others. She's not even sure why she's so hesitant; the only person who would care is Peter, and she's not sure she cares whether Peter cares, but she just - she's not sure.</em>
</p><p>The twist comes when Alicia least expects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Risk/Reward

They're both paying more attention to each other than where they are and Alicia, for her part, is more than a little tipsy. Alicia, still growing accustomed to the whole gay _thing_ , tends to overindulge herself at lesbian bars.

Bar, actually - singular. 

Alicia's intellectually sure all of Kalinda's gay bars are equally discreet, but she doesn't much see the virtue in risking trying any others. She's not even sure why she's so hesitant; the only person who would care is Peter, and she's not sure she cares whether Peter cares, but she just - she's not sure.

She's definitely drunk. She's not sure what Kalinda's excuse is, but neither of them see the man with the gun until he stands in front of them, points it at them, and says, "Your purses!"

Alicia giggles. The way he said it - _yerperthes_ \- just sounds funny. She plays it back in her head and giggles again, and then Kalinda elbows her. Alicia looks at the gun again and her sluggish mind begins to comprehend her situation.

"Oh," she says. "You want my purse."

"Buthyerperthes," the man says. He's a small, balding man with a slight pudge, a patchy beard, and wide eyes. This time, she restrains her giggle.

She presents him with the accessory in question and, thinking _watch the strap_ , frowns when he snatches it from her grasp. He turns the gun on Kalinda.

"It's not cocked," Kalinda says.

He looks down.

She swivels. She punches the little man in the nose. She grabs his wrist and moves the gun away. She kicks him in the - _oh, ow._ Then she takes the gun from his hand. (Alicia gapes at Kalinda; her girlfriend just turned, she thinks, into an action star.

"Give it back," says Kalinda. 

The mugger's eyes have practically bugged out of his chest and his nose bleeds freely, and he gibbers uselessly as he clutches his purse hand over his injured hand over his groin, so Kalinda points the gun at him helpfully. "Drop it."

He drops it.

"Scram."

He scrams.

Alicia blames the liquor still in her system for the way she just gapes. Everything about this seems very strange. The efficient, thorough way that Kalinda wipes the gun off and tosses it into a storm drain - that's very strange. She knew, right - she did know - but she hadn't seen. It would probably have looked less amazing had she been sober. She says, "You said it wasn't cocked."

Kalinda crouches down to pick up the purse and presents it to Alicia, and Alicia, as she takes it, notes that it is unfortunately somewhat the worse for wear. She'll have to buy a new one, eventually - she has spares, but _still_.

"It's a modern semiauto," Kalinda tells her, in a tone of voice not at all unlike the one she uses to patronize her children in moments of special dimwittedness. "It doesn't need to be cocked."

"Oh. Right." She takes her purse back. "So you just - "

"Yeah."

"Oh," she says again. "Right."

Neither of them seem to have more to say than that, so they walk together. Alicia take the chance to mull things over, but she's not actually sober yet, so there's less mulling and more choppily replaying her memory of what happened. It's like someone dropped the photo album all over the floor, and now she has to put it all back in order - hundreds of startlingly clear frames, but only context clues to say one came before another.

She only notices the cold when her teeth start to chatter. Kalinda notices that too, but they haven't touched on the walk and Kalinda appears hesitant to make the first move. Alicia rubs her arms and tries to ignore it.

And Alicia is three steps past Kalinda when she notices Kalinda has stopped, and three seconds slow realizing they've reached Kalinda's building.

"You should come up," Kalinda says. "You shouldn't be alone."

As appealling as that sounds - and Alicia does catch herself half-nodding - something has started to come together in her head. She has to force herself, but she says, "I don't think that's a good idea."

Kalinda's face freezes.

"Look - that wasn't okay. What you did, it wasn't okay."

She watches the flickers of expressions on Kalinda's face, the things she's never sure if she can really see on her beautiful girlfriend or if she merely projects them from her own hopes. She thinks she sees disappointment, anger, discomfort, and uncertainty, at least.

"You waited until he was pointing the - the gun at you to do that, Kalinda. I figured that out. And... you wouldn't have tried that while he was pointing it at me."

Kalinda blurts, "Of course not."

"Because it was dangerous. It was really dangerous. And maybe you haven't figured it out, and that's okay, it took me until I had kids to get it, really, but - if we're going to do this, you have to know what you mean to me. Maybe you don't care much about yourself, but... we should have this talk when my mind is working right."

"Say what you've got," says Alicia's beautiful, strong lover.

"I care what happens to you, and if you care about me, you'll respect that. That's all."

Kalinda nods once, dismissively. She looks away, then , for a hundredth of a second, meets Alicia's eyes. Then she looks away again. Then she nods again, less dismissively, and all told it's about the most expressive Alicia's seen her be outside a bedroom in - oh, months, at least. She says, "He made me angry. I waited until he wasn't pointing the gun at you because I had to, but he pointed that gun at you. He made me angry. Please, will you just come up?"

When Kalinda hunches just a little, suggesting vulnerability, Alicia can't decide if it's genuine emotion or a calculated display (or if, this being Kalinda, the two aren't different ways of saying one thing). Either way, it's always been her weak spot. She think about protesting at least one more time, but, since she already knows she's going to give in, it just seems stupid now.


End file.
